10 DISAPPOINTING Bosses With Great Build Up

10 Disappointing Bosses With Great Build-Up

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we’re looking at boss fights that had us excited leading up to them, only to drop the ball and leave us with disappointment. Since some of these take place at the end of their game, there will naturally be some spoilers ahead.

Zoran Lazarevic

“Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” (2009)

The primary threat of “Uncharted 2” is admittedly pretty bland. He’s simply a warlord given almost no personality. While there isn’t great build-up within his characterization, there is great build-up towards his final boss fight during the climax. As we move through Shambhala, it’s hard not to be impressed by the grand level design. And there are some pretty tough encounters to make it through, too. It makes you think that Lazarevic will cap off this adventure with a fittingly epic showdown. But again, he falls short. After drinking resin from the Tree of Life, he becomes a bullet sponge that you must periodically blow up to get past his now-immense durability. It isn’t all that creative or fun, and it’s one of the weaker parts of an otherwise fantastic game.

Tentalus

“The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword” (2011)

With the ability to move certain sections between two different time periods, the Sandship is one of the best dungeons in “Skyward Sword.” And when you reach its end, and massive tentacles start tearing the ship to shreds as you try to escape, you prepare yourself for a battle against a mighty kraken. Most of that excitement is completely drained when you see the boss’ ridiculous design. It isn’t intimidating; it’s goofy, like a child monster playing pretend at being a real threat. Any remaining excitement disappears when you fight the horrid thing. It isn’t fun to swing wildly at a barrage of tentacles. In fact, it’s really tedious, making for an unfortunately frustrating fight of what could have been an incredible, mythological clash.

The Destroyer

“Borderlands” (2009)

Another tentacle monster that ends up being a giant disappointment, the Destroyer sours a pretty enjoyable experience that is the original “Borderlands.” You spend the game seeking this mysterious Vault with untold riches, gearing up for a fight against Commandant Steele, only for the Destroyer to pop out of said Vault, kill Steele, and make you suffer an extremely generic encounter. As a beast meant to wreak havoc, it doesn’t put up much of a fight either. The Destroyer simply sits, stationary, as you lay into its painfully obvious weak spots. Those being its single, gigantic eyeball and the large purple bulbs on each tentacle. All of its attacks are easily avoided, too, if you just stand behind one of several large boulders scattered around the battlefield.

Colonel Augustus Autumn

“Fallout 3” (2008)

“Fallout 3” sets Colonel Autumn up to be a ruthless villain. He’s the leader of the Enclave’s military forces, and his actions directly lead to the death of the player’s father. So, when you finally get to face the man responsible for so much pain, it’s natural to have some high expectations. And they’re pretty much shattered. You can either talk him down with high enough Intelligence, or you can choose to fight him. The latter leads to a confrontation that is over in mere seconds. At this point, you’ll be so overpowered and Colonel Autumn doesn’t even have any armor to withstand…well, pretty much anything. He’s way too easy for the threat he seemingly posed.

Alduin

“The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” (2011)

Any player that began their journey in “Skyrim” and got their first look at the dragon, Alduin, would understandably be worried about ever going up against him. He’s said to be the bringer of the apocalypse, and literally holds the title of ‘World Destroyer.’ Sadly, at the end of the story, he’s a pretty big let down. While the fight has its fair share of spectacle, it all feels a little empty considering how easy Alduin is. You have a group of NPCs fighting with you, you’ll be overpowered by all the questing you’ve done, and his attacks are fairly predictable. There are harder optional dragons than Alduin, encountered just by exploring, making us wonder why he gets to be known as this harbinger of doom.

Mutated Jack Baker

“Resident Evil 7: Biohazard” (2017)

There are a lot of players who justifiably feel “Resident Evil 7,” while a strong return to form, dips in quality during its final third. This is represented pretty well with your final fight against Jack Baker. Previous clashes were incredibly tense, as the seemingly immortal man just kept coming, hunting and barreling down on us in tight spaces. These moments made him a force to be reckoned with. Ironically, when he mutates into a hideous monster, when he’s supposed to be at his most intimidating, that’s when the wind is taken out of his sails. While he’s far from the first antagonist to mutate in this series, it takes away what made the other encounters unique. Mostly, it’s him being another boss with the obvious weak point of giant, glowing eyeballs, which isn’t exactly a creative choice.

The Black Hand of Sauron

“Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor” (2014)

When a game opens with the villain sacrificing you and your family to summon a wraith, only for you to survive and fuse with said wraith, it’s understandable to have certain expectations about how that final confrontation will go. Yet, the battle against the Black Hand of Sauron is the most disappointing moment in “Shadow of Mordor.” It all boils down to a handful of quicktime events, making him one of the most easily dispatched final bosses of the 2010s. This is especially frustrating considering this game’s Nemesis System, which nearly everyone agreed on was an incredibly unique way to build rivalries against the game’s other various villains.

Lucien Fairfax

“Fable II” (2008)

At least the Black Hand got a quick time event, because that’s more than what we got in “Fable II.” Towards the beginning of your adventure, Lord Lucien Fairfax murders your sister. And once again, the death of a loved one, along with being antagonized by him throughout the game, gives you false hope that when the two of you square off, it will be a satisfying showdown. Unfortunately, when the time comes, the game prompts you to simply shoot him, putting him down in a single hit. Even if you wait to hear his speech, your ally, Reaver, just shoots him instead. What a gigantic letdown.

The Joker

“Batman: Arkham Asylum” (2009)

The final confrontation with the Joker in “Arkham Asylum” has been talked about to death. But it doesn’t change the fact that it deserves to be here. Since Mark Hamill reprised the role, alongside Kevin Conroy’s Batman and Arleen Sorkin’s Harley Quinn, and Paul Dini served as writer, the game was a fantastic reunion for fans of the animated series of the 90s. And as Batman tracked Joker throughout the Asylum, it instilled a lot of excitement in us for when we could finally stop him. Then came the decision to inject Joker with the Titan Formula, and any hope for nuance or good boss design went straight out the window. They took one of the most cunning villains in fiction, and dumbed him down to a hulking monster, with him and groups of enemies being fought the same way we’d already fought plenty of other goons. Along with the frankly ugly design, Joker deserved better.

Frank Fontaine

“BioShock” (2007)

Ask anyone who’s played it; the twist that your ally Atlas is really Frank Fontaine, a criminal said to have died in his war against Rapture founder Andrew Ryan, and has been controlling you through psychological conditioning, is one of the greatest moments in any video game. It sets Fontaine up to be utterly merciless, exceptionally clever, and dangerously patient when it comes to reaching his goals. This incredible build up is also why he’s one of the most disappointing bosses in any video game. When you face him, he’s injected himself with so much ADAM that he’s been turned into a big hulking boss. But he doesn’t even have the strength to back up this appearance. It’s an abnormally boring fight, full of telegraphed attacks that are easily dodged, from a boss whose health bar is laughably small. It sticks out amidst the rest of the game, not nearly as engaging or well-thought out as anything that came before him.

What boss left you disappointed after building up hype? Share your thoughts in the comments, and we’ll see you next time!